Fear of Suffocation
by justawkwardlystandingthere
Summary: "Piper looked away, trying to block out Percy's anguished cries, tears pooling in her eyes. She had never seen Percy— or anyone for that matter— look so… broken, so scared. Phobos, on the other hand, stood just to her left, grinning like he was watching an amusing movie. A wave of anger hit her. How could anybody be so cruel?" A Percy and Piper friendship story. NOT PERCY/PIPER!


**A/N**

**So, I've had this idea for a short story involving Percy and Piper friendship for a while, and it sort of evolved into this story about Percy's fears as well. I hope you guys enjoy! Please review if you have any plot ideas, or even ideas for others stories. All reviews are loved! Also, I personally am a huge fan of **friendship **stories between Percy/Piper, Annabeth/Jason and Percy/Jason. And by friendship I mean friendship only; no romance. If anyone has any good recommendations, please comment or PM me. Thanks for reading! **

Piper woke up to screams. She flung the covers off her bed, and jumped to her feet, yanking Katropis off her dresser on the way out the door, not bothering to change out of her pajamas first. She crept down the hallway and up onto the deck, the cold floor leaving her bare feet tingling.

Something definitely felt wrong. The scene before her seemed unnaturally calm and quiet, almost... peaceful. The sea slapped playfully against the ship's hull, creating a comforting rocking motion. A cool wind whistled faintly through the sails, gingerly ripping strands of loose hair from her ponytail and whipping them into a soft cloud around her face.

Were had the screams come from? She did a quick lap around the deck, half expecting a monster to jump out from the shadows behind her, but for once nothing did. Eventually, after she was relatively satisfied that nothing was going to attack her, she eased herself into one of the beach chairs that Percy had insisted Leo add to the deck, saying that he "needed a comfortable vantage point to guard the ship from." Piper couldn't help but smile at the memory. That had been on their first day officially together as the seven of the prophecy, and although she had been terrified out of her mind, she still found herself reminiscing for those days.

A sudden _creak_ broke her out of her thoughts, scaring her silly. She whirled around, Katropis flashing through the air in a deadly arc, but there was nothing there. Piper shook her head, sticking her knife back in the waistband of her pants. Her paranoia seemed to be in overdrive that night, almost as if someone were…

"SHOW YOURSELF!" She commanded, pouring all of her charmspeak into the words. There was a sudden pop and a figure appeared in a flash of black light. He was dressed in dark jeans and a black leather jacket, his face crisscrossed with brutal scars. Piper didn't recognize him from any myths, but he radiated the powerful, tell-tale aura of a god. His mere presence seemed to have an affect on her, and the slightly-panicked feeling that she had had all night increased to full out panic. Voices whispered frantically at the edge of her consciousness, their words undistinguishable. She flinched back under his gaze, shaking her head in a futile attempt to clear it. If anything, the voices seemed to intensify.

_Run!_ They rasped. _Scream! FEAR US!_

The words seemed to seize control of her mind, and suddenly she couldn't think straight. For the first time in her life, she understood what charmspeak felt like. Every molecule of her body wanted to scream in fear, to run away, to give in to the voices, but her mind just wouldn't let her. A name fluttered at the edge of her consciousness, flying away just before she could grasp it. She struggled to remember, her body threatening to give out under the strain and the pure terror. Terror. That was it.

"De…Deimos," she managed to choke out, struggling against the words that held her captive. "You…you don't scare me." She took a deep breath, regaining control of her mind; she couldn't let his voice get to her like that.

The effect of her words was instantaneous. The voices in her head vanished completely, leaving behind a shocking silence.

"Very good sister," taunted Deimos. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the mast, wearing a look of mock impression. "Other people tend to go crazy in my presence, but not you…. _Nooo_ you're too good for that. Too _strong_. Or are you?"

Piper gritted her teeth. She knew he was trying to aggravate her, but the sound of his oily voice made her want to bash her head against a wall. She remembered the myth now. Deimos and Phobos. Terror and Fear. Sons of Ares and Aphrodite— which made them her half brothers… She shuddered. To say she had a confusing family tree would definitely be an understatement.

"Scared sister? You should be." His voice dripped with powerful magic, charmspeak at it's most dangerous. If she hadn't been prepared for the onslaught of power, she would be dead. There was no doubt in her mind about that. As it was, she could barely control her own thoughts. Piper took a deep breath, a final effort to wrest her mind from Deimos's control. Her head cleared somewhat, and a plan started to form in her mind.

Piper started to laugh. The musical sound bounced about the deck, completely breaking Deimos's spell. She clutched at her sides, thinking of every funny thing that had ever happened to her. Leo's nose spontaneously bursting on fire, Percy's pouting face that had absolutely no effect on Annabeth, Frank turning into an iguana… The flood of happy memories seemed to completely disorient Deimos, but she wasn't sure how long it would work. It was now or never.

"Deimos," started Piper sternly, pouring potent amounts of charmspeak into the words; more that she had ever used before. "You will leave this ship now. You will not harm anyone on this boat, and you will never return."

Deimos hesitated, and Piper held her breath. If he broke free of her words there was nothing she could do; she had never excelled at hand to hand combat. After what felt like millennium, the battle of wills seemed to finally cease, and Deimos nodded slowly— clearly unsure of why he was doing so— disappearing in a flash of light.

Piper slunk to the ground in exhaustion and shock, propping herself up against the railing. She was more tired than she cared to admit— the charmspeak had taken a lot out of her. She had barely been sitting down for five minutes, when she heard them again. The screams. Terrible screams. Coming from below deck.

_I'm an idiot,_ thought Piper, jumping back to her feet and rushing downstairs. Deimos and Phobos, Terror and Fear, were twin brothers. She had just beaten Deimos, but where was Phobos?

The source of the racket was Percy's room, of all places. This surprised Piper; of the seven demigods on the Argo ll, Percy would be the last one she expected to be screaming like this. She hated herself for doing it, but she hesitated outside his door, unsure of exactly what she would find inside. It sounded as if someone were being tortured. Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore. She reached for the doorknob, only to find in locked tight from the inside. Panic fluttered in her breastbone. Percy was in trouble, she was sure of it.

The door came down with three well-aimed kicks, leaving her bare foot stinging with splinters of wood. She rushed in the room, but suddenly she wasn't on the Argo ll anymore, she was somewhere else entirely.

* * *

_Piper stood at the edge of a deep crevice, staring down into the inky black depths of the earth. Sharp voices broke her out of her trance, and she looked up suddenly, coming face to face with… herself? No. There was no way this was her. Other Piper looked exactly like her, down to the choppy hair braided with black and white feathers, but her face was twisted and cruel, her hard kaleidoscope eyes full of hatred. Annabeth, Jason, and the rest of the seven were there also, along with Nico, Thalia, Reyna, Clarisse, Travis and Conner Stoll, and countless others that Piper didn't recognize; each of their faces just as terrible as Fake Piper's._

"NO! Please!" Someone was screaming frantically, and Piper realized with a start that it was Percy. The others were surrounding him, Jason and Frank seizing his arms and forcing him into… a wooden box? No. A coffin. Piper's eyes widened in horror, realizing what was about to happen. She tried to shout, tried to run forward to help, but someone grabbed her by the arm in an unbreakable grip, restraining her. She whirled around, coming face to face with Phobos. He was dressed in ratty jeans and a black T-shirt, a dirty red bandanna wrapped around his greasy hair.

"Where are you going girlie? These are his worst fears, you can't help him." Phobos's eyes were bright, alight with flames. He looked like a kid in a candy store, and that made Piper sick. How could someone get so much pleasure from seeing others suffer?

"Let…go…of…me!" She wrested her arm from his iron grip, and tried to run forward, but her legs wouldn't obey.

"Don't leave!" Phobos was grinning like a maniac. "This is the best part!"

Piper couldn't help but watch as Percy was pushed into the coffin, despite his violent struggles, and down into the inky depths of the earth. She shouldn't have been able to see what happened after that, but somehow she could; she could see straight through the earth and the coffin itself.

Percy's breath was coming to him in short gasps, and he was struggling desperately against his prison, scratching at the walls until his fingers bled. The tons of earth on top of him started leaking into the coffin, slowly suffocating him. Percy looked like he was having a panic attack. His emerald eyes were wild, and full of fear, tears streaming down his face.

The scene around them suddenly flickered, then changed. Piper recognized their surroundings with a start. They were back in the Nymphaeum, only this time Percy was completely alone. There was nothing he could do as the black, oily water crept higher and higher up his body, slowly drowning him. He desperately struggled to control the cursed water, but it wouldn't obey him. He prayed and begged to Poseidon, but nothing happened. As the water finally engulfed his head, the scene changed once again.

They were in a small, dark cell. Percy hung from the wall, arms chained above his head, screaming bloody murder. He fought and struggled desperately against his bonds, calling out for Annabeth, for his mom and dad, for his friends. Piper even caught her own name a few times. His torturer stood behind him, whip in hand, hands splattered with Percy's blood. Piper gasped when she saw her face. It looked exactly like Annabeth. As she watched the daughter of Athena's face changed, morphing into Nico's, then Jason's, then Piper's own. Piper's screams mingled with Percy's, as the scene changed yet again.

She was back at Camp Half-Blood, but the camp was in ruins, the cabins burned to the ground. Percy stood atop Zeus's Fist, surrounded by a hoard of angry monsters, each holding a knife to the throat of a captive demigod. "Why didn't you save us Percy?" called out Annabeth, as she was roughly shoved to the ground. "This is all your fault." Percy tried to call out, tried to save her, but he seemed to be paralyzed. He couldn't help but watch as each of his friends was shoved to the ground, one after another.

Piper looked away, trying to block out Percy's anguished cries, tears pooling in her eyes. She had never seen Percy— or anyone for that matter— look so… broken, so scared. Phobos, on the other hand, stood just to her left, grinning like he was watching an amusing movie. A wave of anger hit her. How could anybody be so cruel? She stumbled backwards, grabbing Katropis out of her belt loop. The celestial bronze knife whistled through the air, nailing Phobos in the middle of the forehead. The god howled in pain, golden ichor dripping down his face.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Piper's voice, usually so clear and coherent, cracked with emotion. "LEAVE!" Phobos didn't even hesitate. He vanished in a swirl of red, and the scene around them dissolved into smoke.  


* * *

She was back in Percy's room, leaning against the wall, breathing hard. Percy lay curled up on the ground, shaking slightly. His hands were bloody, and the wooden floor surrounding him was covered in deep scratch marks. They had been in the cabin the entire time, Piper realized, Phobos had just manipulated the Mist to trick them into thinking otherwise. Percy moaned suddenly, his eyelids fluttering open, and Piper rushed to his side. She grabbed his arm gently to help him up, but he cringed back, trembling slightly.

"Please…" he begged, his eyes shining with fear, "leave me alone."

Piper's heart broke a little when he said that. "Percy it's me, Piper. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Piper." He sounded relieved, yet embarrassed at the same time. "Um. What are you doing in here?"

Piper mentally face-palmed. Only Percy would try and blow the whole thing off. "You were screaming," she replied, "are you okay?"

"Ye..yeah," he lied, not-so-smoothly, getting to his feet. "Just a dream."

"What were you dreaming about?" she asked innocently.

"Umm, Leo… dancing." Percy started, uncertainly. "Yeah, that's it, Leo dancing. Scary stuff."

"Perseus Jackson, please tell me you are not going to stand there and pretend like nothing just happened." Percy winced at the sound of his full name.

He raised his hands in surrender. "Look, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Percy, you're a really, really bad liar," she replied. Why was he being so defensive about this?

"I'm not…" Piper cut him off.

"I saw it," she interrupted. Percy suddenly seemed to find the rug very interesting, but she plowed on. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He shook his head, forcing a small grin. "Nah, it was just a little nightmare. No big deal. Thanks for waking me though, I'll see you in the morning."

He wanted her out, and that much was obvious, but Piper could tell that Percy was barely holding himself together. He was paler than Nico, and was visibly trembling, his black T-shirt soaked in sweat.

"A little nightmare?" Piper raised her eyebrows. "That's not a nightmare Percy, it's torture!"

He opened his mouth to retort, then closed it again. "I... I know." His voice dropped down to a whisper. "I just don't know what to do about it. I've thought about asking Annabeth, but I don't want to worry her."

"Wait a minute, 'thought'? Percy, has this happened before?" Her voice rose a little, fueled by shock. Percy looked like he wished he had never said anything.

"Look, can we talk about this up on the deck? I'm a little... claustrophobic." He said the last part quickly, as if he were embarrassed by it.

Piper blinked in surprise. Percy's room wasn't exactly roomy, but it wasn't cramped either. "Yeah, of course. Let's go."


End file.
